Well maybe I was

In the last post, I noted today's nomination of John Ashcroft, the thoroughly odious out-going Senator from Missouri, as Attorney General.

Senators and former Senators are usually given an extremely soft ride in cabinet confirmation hearings. And on first blush I, despairingly, predicted it would be the same for Ashcroft.

But perhaps not.

Turns out Ashcroft was not so popular among his colleagues in the Senate, though he's real chummy with Trent Lott. And key constituencies within the Democratic party are already mobilizing, heatedly, in opposition. (On this one I'm not kidding. Friday before Christmas, or no, phones and beepers and faxes are ringing off the hook for liberals all over DC.)

Ashcroft argued that his opposition to White's nomination was based on White's insufficient commitment to the death penalty (White affirmed the death penalty in only 71% of the cases which came before him.) But Ronnie White is black and race was widely believed to have played a role in Ashcroft's opposition. Colleagues of mine who have looked into the case (and who don't make the charge lightly) believe that it was really more like the sole reason for Ashcroft's opposition.

To say that Ashcroft has a lousy record on civil rights is rather generous. Add to this the fact that Ashcroft is thoroughly hostile to women's rights, gay rights, and abortion rights and you'll start to get a feel for why more than a few Dems may decide to vote against him.

More anti-Ashcroft muckraking to follow.

P.S. Oh yeah, almost forget to mention it. After Ashcroft's defeat last month he went on a sort of self-congratulation tour making invidious comparisons between himself and Al Gore, arguing that he had done the right thing by not contesting his close defeat to the late Mel Carnahan. He neglected to mention that he lost to Carnahan by a bit more than 2% of the vote. In other words, Ashcroft, unlike Gore, had no business even thinking about contesting the vote. And the supposed legal claims he might have pursued were flimsy. Slate's Tim Noah effortlessly dispatches Ashcroft's moronic gambit here.